What Are the 4 Elements of Negligence?

The 4 Elements of Negligence in an Injury Claim

For a successful personal injury case, your attorney must establish the four elements of negligence. These elements prove who is responsible for your injury, why they are the one responsible, and the fact that their actions (or lack of action) caused you direct harm and financial hardship.

The 4 elements of negligence include:

• Duty of Care
• Breach of Duty
• Causation
• Damages

Your attorney must successfully show that each of these elements is present in your case in order to hold another party responsible for your injury and the costs and future costs you incur as a result. Keep reading to learn more about each element, what it entails, and common examples in personal injury cases.

1. Duty of Care

Duty is the legal obligation to act with reasonable care toward the people your conduct can hurt. In Florida the test comes from McCain v. Florida Power Corp., 593 So. 2d 500 (Fla. 1992): where a defendant's conduct creates a foreseeable zone of risk that poses a general threat of harm to others, the law imposes a duty either to lessen the risk or to see that sufficient precautions are taken. Whether a duty exists is a question of law for the judge, not a question for the jury.

For example, other drivers on the road have the legal responsibility not to drive recklessly. If they speed, run a stop sign, tailgate, fail to use their turn signal, and more, and the behavior results in an accident they are breaching this duty of care.

Similarly, property owners have the duty of care to maintain their space in a way that is safe for others. For example, store owners have the responsibility to ensure spills are cleaned up in a timely fashion, that loose floorboards are fixed, and more. If a person injures themselves on property that isn't well maintained, the store or property owner may have breached their duty of care.

Another common example of another person's duty of care in personal injury cases is that of an animal owner. Simply by owning an animal you accept the duty of care you have to keep other people protected from bites and attacks.

There are countless other examples of duty of care. Any time a person puts another person in harm's way they are breaching this duty. Duty does not make one person the insurer of another's carelessness. A store owner has no duty to stop a customer from doing cartwheels down the aisle, because the risk there comes from the customer's own conduct rather than from anything the store did or failed to do.

2. Breach of Duty

For a successful personal injury claim, the opposing party must have breached their duty of care. What this means is that they failed to uphold their legal responsibility to keep you safe, either through reckless action or lack of action.

Breaching a duty of care entails failing to act reasonably, or in a way that another person could be expected to act in a similar situation. This breach of duty is part of what protects individuals from being sued in simple accidents. Would another store owner have known to make those same necessary repairs? Would another driver know that driving at that speed was dangerous? These are all important facts to consider.

3. Causation

Causation is third on the list of the four elements of negligence, and it is extremely important. Causation runs in one direction. Your injury has to be the result of the other party's breach, not the breach a result of your injury. The usual test is whether, but for the other party's act or failure to act, you would not have been hurt. Under McCain v. Florida Power Corp., 593 So. 2d 500 (Fla. 1992), proximate cause asks whether the harm that happened was a foreseeable consequence of the conduct, and unlike duty it is a question of fact for the jury.

For example, say you twist your ankle while walking on uneven pavement, leading to a break that requires surgery, physical therapy, and time off of work. The cause of your injury is the twist resulting from the uneven pavement, that the property owner had the duty of care to keep safe for pedestrians. By failing to keep the pavement safe they breached their duty, and it resulted in your injury. If they had fixed the uneven pavement, you likely would not have twisted your ankle and wound up in the hospital with an injury. This is what the law refers to as causation.

4. Damages

You must establish that you incur damages as the result of your injury, as this is what you are filing a personal injury case to reclaim. These damages are what your settlement money goes to compensate. Damages are what you lose as a result of your injury.

It is imperative to know that damages do not have to be strictly monetary, though monetary damages certainly are important. They can also include compensation for pain and suffering. Additionally, damages do not only pertain to medical bills and the cost of treating your injury.

Damages can include damage to your property as the result of an accident, such as the costs to repair your car after a crash as well as the cost to replace belongings that were inside of it. Additionally, damages can include compensation for not just your immediate medical bills, but expected medical costs you will incur in the future as a result of your injury. They may also include lost wages and future lost wages, compensation for mental health treatment to cope with the emotional fallout of a serious injury, and more.

An attorney is useful at this stage because the categories are easy to undercount. Future medical care, future lost earnings, and treatment for the mental health effects of a serious injury are all recoverable, and all three are routinely left out of a demand a claimant prepares alone. If you're considering filing a claim, speak with an attorney before you do so to ensure you are asking for all that you deserve.

How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help

Even if you think your personal injury case is cut and dry, and that the judge is sure to see your side, it is best to consult with a personal injury attorney in Florida with experience in these cases. This helps several elements of your case.

First, an attorney can value the case. That means adding up past and future medical costs, past and future lost income, property damage, and noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering, then testing each figure against what the records will actually support.

Second, an attorney knows what proof each element takes. Duty and breach usually come out of the scene and the records. Causation usually takes a treating physician. Damages take bills, wage records, and often an expert on future costs.

Third, an attorney negotiates against adjusters who handle these claims every day and you do not. Oftentimes, opposing attorneys and insurance companies attempt to offer you less than what you are asking in hopes that you will accept the settlement and they will avoid a big payout. Since you cannot re-open a case after you accept a settlement, have an attorney fighting on your behalf to ensure that this does not happen.

Get Your FREE Case Evaluation

If you or a loved one are suffering from an injury as the result of another party's negligence, contact the legal team at Weinstein Legal Team today and ask for personal injury attorney Justin Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein will provide you with a FREE case evaluation, with no obligation. Our Law Firm handles injury cases in Florida.

During your case evaluation, the team at Weinstein Legal Team will help determine the worth of your case, so you know what to expect in regard to compensation and settlement amount. When you work with Mr. Weinstein and the team at Weinstein Legal Team, you will have access to your injury attorney in Broward, Palm Beach, & Orange around-the-clock. Our phones are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year so no call for help will ever go unanswered.

If you are injured, do not wait. Florida Statute 95.11(5)(a) gives you two years from the date of the injury to file a negligence suit, and physical evidence and witness memory get harder to work with every month that passes. Call 954-845-0505 today.